Good morning, yesterday started off as a more normal day (as normal as life can be in Bogota :). We wanted to spend time with our kids and explore some of Bogota, since they most likely will not be returning with us when we come back down to Colombia again. We were supposed to have a meeting at Cruz's institution (orphanage) at 12:15-1pm. We found out in the morning that the meeting got pushed back until 4 PM, because the Director of the institution wanted to be at this meeting. So we made breakfast in our apartment and hung out and played some cards. Then we went to Park 93 which is a well known park in Bogota. It was only about a 15 min walk from our apartment. We first went to a coffee shop called Juan Valdez Cafe. We enjoyed some local pastries and some coffee drinks. In the park was a play area for the kids which they loved to play and run around.
There is a lot of restaurants and cafes around the park. The kids were amazed at how many people stare at us and some took photos. For a late lunch, we went to a Crepes and Waffles, it has incredible food and ice cream. Unbelievable but I walked out without getting any ice cream :) The food was very good.
We went back and played at the park a little longer, as our driver was supposed to pick us up at the Starbucks at 3:00. Unfortunately he went to our apartment, instead of the Starbucks at Park 93 so we had to squeeze into an Uber to be able to arrive on time for our meeting at 4PM at the institution.
We arrived at the institution and it was an amazing experience to be walking in the doors were our son Cruz, runs down the hallway and would normally be greeting people. We first went into a meeting room, where we met with one of volunteers and was able to meet Ian which is Cruz's best friend. He is a two year boy who was adorable and stayed with us as we walked around and toured the facility. Cruz's bedroom is in a more secure area with some of the younger kids. They normally do not let anyone tour this area for precaution reasons of not getting anyone sick, but due to our unusual circumstances they allowed us to walk in. It was a surreal experience as we walked down the hall, and was able to view Cruz Diego's cubby where all of his current clothing and belongings are stored (in the back of his cubby we could see the Happy Birthday - Build-A-Bear that we sent him on his birthday). We walked past many cribs and viewed all of the little babies as they looked at us and gave big smiles as we would say Hola! Ian was still walking by our side as we walked into the room, where Cruz sleeps. As we viewed and touched Cruz's crib, there were many tears to be shared as it layed empty. We continued on to another room, which was a play area for the kids and where Cruz would play on any other normal day. We were not able to walk far into this room, because our shoes were on, but were able to create smiles from a distance with the kids. It was an amazing experience to be walking in the rooms, doorways and hallways, that we have only been seeing in photos and videos of Cruz. The kids were putting the rooms together like a puzzle, as they have viewed from previous memories of Cruz walking around, playing and dancing to his favorite video, Coco.
A little side note: We were told that Coco is Cruz's favorite video. On our airplane flight down to Bogota, I was scrolling through the many options of videos that are made available by American Airlines. I came across Coco, and thought it would be a great idea for me to watch my son's favorite video and become a little familiar. To my unknown, it was another crazy story. The movie Coco is about a little boy that absolutely LOVES music. As the movie plays on, you discover that the little boy's hero is a musician and singer, De La Cruz! I thought it was amazing that our sons favorite movie is about a boy that has a hero named Cruz.
So we walked back out through the many cribs and left the area where Cruz's sleeps. The employees said they love Cruz, and always wants to take walks through the hallways so he grabs their hands and says "Let's Go". :)
Now was the time, to meet with the Director of the institution, the head nurse at the orphanage, a volunteer (found our related to director), our Madison (adoption agency) representative and Kate and I. We only found out later that it isn't always common that they allow the Madison rep in this meeting. And for how the meeting went, we were very thankful.
They explained the whole story to us on how Cruz was doing last Friday and what led them to take him to the hospital. We were very thankful that the nurse new him well enough, to know he was not his normal self and needed more medical attention. We are also thankful for the doctor that originally analyzed Cruz, as many people thought he was just having pain from his feeding tube. The doctor felt there were many things that aligned that the pain would not be from the feeding tube, which led him to do a little exploratory surgery which is when they discovered the pancreatitis. We were disappointed with the director and volunteer as they has mentioned many times that Cruz was waking up and they have spoken with him on the phone. Kate and Madison were just at the hospital the night before and this was not the information that we were receiving on his current state and would not be good for his healing process and pain level if he is waking up. To make a long story, no longer, we concluded with the meeting that it would be best if we could get in communication again with the doctor. So we planned for myself, the volunteer from the institution and Madison's son and girlfriend who are on their last year to become medical doctors will be visiting the hospital, to get a clear understanding and update. It is also our goal to get a direct contact with the hospital that our doctors fro the US can communicate with them on regular updates on Cruz's status.
We left the institution and came back to our apartment with Madison and her son and son's girlfriend met us at the apartment for a late dinner and to be able to meet each other.
We feel very good about being able to go meet with the doctor again.
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